Conveyer feed control



E. H. MESSITER.

couvavan FEED CONTROL APPLICATION FILED DEC. !2- I918. 1 44,768. Patented June 29, 1920.

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way/Z02 E. H. MESSITER. CONVEYER FEED CONTROL. APPLICATION mm 0:c.12. ms.

Patented June 29, 1920.

2 $HEETS-SHEET S I Q w w $9 MS i R Q SQ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN H. MESSITER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO ELECTRIC WEIGI-IING COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.. A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

CONVEYER FEED CONTROL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 29, 1920.

Application filed December 12, 1918. Serial No. 266,392.

To all IU/LOi/t it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN H. Mnssrrna, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Brooklyn, Kings county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Conveyor Feed Controls, of which the followin; is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention. relates to new and useful improvements in feed controls for conveyors and its object is to provide a simple and reliable apparatus for automatically varyin; the amount of material carried by one or more conveyers to be proportional to that carried by another conveyer.

In order that my invention may be thoroughly understood. I will now proceed to describe the same in the following specilication, and will then point out the novel features thereof in appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a conveyor system comprising three belt conveyors and associated parts which embody this invention.

Fig. 2 is an elevation, partly in section, on a larger scale. of the feed control mechanism shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a detail of a modified arrangement of a motor, some of the automatic switches and the circuits therefor which may be used in carrying out this invention.

10, 11 and L2 designate three conveyer belts, each of which runs over a continuous weigher. As in the drawings these are of similar construction, a detailed description of one of them will suffice. The belts as in common practice are endless and are supported on rollers 13. They are provided with some suitable driving mechanism, not shown, by which they are given a continuous movement in one direction while in operation. 14-14 are supporting rollers for a part of the upper portion of the belt. These are mounted on a frame 15 which is suspended by rods 1616 from scale beams 17 and 18, to which they are connected at a like distance from their fixed pivotal supports 19 and 20 inside of these supports. Rollers 21-21 support a like length of the lower portion of the belt. These rollers are on a frame 22 which is suspended from the same scale beams by rods 23-23 connected to the scale beams on the outside of their pivotal supports and at the same distance therefrom as the rods 16. Between the scale beams is a slot and pin connection at 24. The scale beam 17 is extended beyond the point at which one of the rods 23 is connected with beam 18 and a movable member of an adjustable rheostat 25 is connected with this extended part. at 26.

27 is a magneto driven by the conveyor belt and arranged to generate a voltage proportional to the rate at which the conveyer belt is driven. The rheostat 25 is in the circuit 28 of the magneto armature and a meter 29 is also in this circuit. 30 is a battery from which a conductor 31 leads to the meter. 32 and 33 are other conductors connected with the meter 29.

Material on the upper part of the conveyer belt depresses the rollers 1414 and the scale beams 17 and 18, and automatically adjusts the rheostat 25 to decrease its resistance. If any material adheres to the conveyor belt it will have a tendency to depress the rollers 21. and this will counteract the effect of the depression of rollers 14 to an extent proportional to the difference in weight between the material on the upper and the lower part of the conveyer belt. Consequently the rheostat 25 will be varied to an extent proportional to the delivered load of the conveyer. As the voltage of the magneto is proportional to the speed of the conveyor, the meter is allected by the load delivered by the conveyor. The meter is arranged to close circuits alternately between conductors 31-32 and 31-33, and is calibrated to close one of these circuits every time a given load such for example as 100 lbs. passes over the conveyor scale.

'10 is a hopper from which material is fed onto the conveyor belt by the reciprocation of a plunger 41 driven by a shunt wound motor 42. The armature of this motor is across the mains. A rheostat 43 is in series with. its field coil, which for the purpose of illustrating the connections is shown outside of the motor and designated by 44. The rheostat 43 is adjusted by hand, and it is obvious that the rate at which material may be fed onto the conveyer may be varied at will.

50 is a hopper for the conveyor 11 and its iii) plunger 51 is driven by a shunt motor 52 of which the armature is connected across the power mains and 53 is an automatically actuated rheostat in its lield 5+1.

Similar parts are provided for the convcyer 12 designated respectively by (illok 62(i3 and 13:1.

and 71 are solenoids of which the cores are connected by a walking; beam T2 ccntrally pivoted and with a weight 7 1 above its pivot point. 74 is a movable contact on the core of solenoid T0 and over two stationary contacts 75-T6. 77 is a movable contact on the core of solenoid 71 and over stationary contacts 78-79.

Another solenoid comprises two windings 8(1-81, a movable contact 32, and stationary contacts 83-84. An adjustable automatic circuit breaker is provided which has a ver tically movable guided weight from which projects a. finger 91 which is adapted to engage and lift a switch .lllli $12 from a contact 93 on which it rests. The switch arm and contact .121 are electrically connected with brushes fil -1 5 respectively which are slid-able on strips Ho 97 98 is a screw by means of which the vertical position of this switch arrangement may be adjusted The weight 911 is suspended from a chain 100 which is wound on a drum 1111 rotatively mounted on a shaft 102. A gear member 11 3 rotatively mounted on the same shaft on one side of the drunn is arranged to be driven by a pinion 10-1 on the armature shaft of a motor 105. This gear member has a disk 1116 adjacent one end of the drum 11 1 ()n the other side of the drum on sha 1t 1022 is another gear member 107 havinr a disk 108 adjacent its end of the drum.

110 is a shaft parallel with shaft 102. liotatively supported on it is a member which comprises a spur gear 111 in mesh with the gear member 107, and a bevel gear 112. A similar member on shaft 110 comprises a spur gear 113 anda bevel gear 114. A collar 115 afl'ixed to the shaft 110 has a radial pin on which is rotativcly supported a bevel gear 116 1111116811 with bevel gears 1152 and 114. A pair of bevel gears 117 are provided for the purpose of transmitting the rotation of shaft 119 to the contact arm 118 of the rheostat 53.

A brake shoe 120 is pressed against the eriphery of the disk 108 by a spring 1531.

his shoe is on the core of a solenoid 122 which, when energized, lifts the brake shoe against the action of spring 121 011. from disk 108.

From the meter which is electrically connected with the conveyer 11 are three wires 131132-133.-The wire 131 runs through a battery 134 to solenoid winding 13? and from thence to the windings of a pan of solenoids 1 36 and 137 which control movable contacts 11-18 and 131) under which are stationary contacts 1-1U-111 and 1612- 1121. The cores of these solenoids are mechanically connected by a walking beam 144 centrally pivoted with a weight 1 15 above its pivot point. 11c is a series winding in alineincnt with winding 12%.) and the core o1 this double wound solenoid controls a movable contact 1 17 under statioiniry contacts 148 and 1 1.).

The parts designated by the reference nuincrals lso lrm are similar to and correspond with the parts 911-98 respectively, and the parts designated by Milk-16H are like parts 1(Ht*1(]8, except that the chain is wound on drum 161 in the opposite direction. 161 is a winding within the drum 1111 and it is to be understood that there a similar winding within the drum 101. The brake parts 1Tl)---1T2 are similar to those designated by 1211 122.

The operation o the apparatus may be described as Follows: When the circuit be tween wires 31 and '13 is closed at the meter 29 current passes iron] the battery 3 1 through conductor 11; solenoid winding 81), the winding of solenoid 71, contacts 78- Ti'--Tll, and back to the battery through wire 32. This will cause contact 82 to be raised to bridge contacts 83-8 1 which will close a circuit from the supply line by wires 123 through winding 01" brake magnet 129 to raise the brake shoe 1211, by wire 124 to motor 1115, by wire 125 from the motor to the winding within the drum 101 (not shown) by wire 126 to contact strip 97, through contacts 115 913 92 94 to contact strip $16 and by wire 172T througg h contacts h3- RE2-S4 solenoid winding 8.1 and wire 12b back to the supply line.

This will cause motor 105 to rotate and drive gear member 10 3. The drum 101 will. be magnetized to cause it to attract and engage disk 106 and to cause the gear member 107 to rotate with it and this will effect a slow rotation to the gear 112 which will tend to carry the gear 1.16 and collar 115 around 111 1 axis of shaft 110 to rotate this shaft and inovc rhcostat arm 118 in one direction,

which movement will continue until the circuit through motor 105 is broken. The rotation o1 drum 1 h will raise weight 90 until its linger 9'1 raises contact 92 from contact 93 to break the motor circuit. This circuit also passes through brake solenoid 122 and the winding within drum 1'11 and Solenoid winding 81. These will be deiinergized, the brake shoe 120 will stop the rotation of shaft 110, the drum 1111 will cease being magnetically attracted to disk 106 the weight 90 will drop back to its original position, andthe contact 82 will drop away from contacts At the same time the solenoid 80 is enerraise its core and contact 77 from contacts Ti -T9 and to lower mo able contact 74 onto contacts T5T6, and the weight 73 will hold the contacts TTT-l in this new position. The raising of contact 7? will hrcak the circu ts through solenoid T1 and the winding so, hot the contact H2 will be nuiintained by the scrics winding 81 until this is broken at 92-93. This arrangement is such that the motor 1H5 will cause the cycle of operations described to be performed once when a circuit closed at the meter 29 between wires 32-431 but this operation will not be repeated by another accidental closure of this circuit as it is broken between contacts 78 79 until the contact T7 is again lowered. Neither will the motor circuit be closed by the closure of the contacts 9293 until solenoid winding 80 is again energized.

The cycle of operations descrihed will be repeated when a circuit is closed at meter 29 ctwcen wires 31. and 33 and the circuits energized will be the same as that described my :pt that this time solenoid will be enc h zed instead of solenoid 71 and contacts 7G disconnected and contacts Tt579 connected.

'lherefore the connections alternately made between wires 3132 and Ell-33 at nu-tcr 29 which occur at a ate proportional to the rate at which material passes over convcyer belt 10 will each cause a cycle of operations to be performed which will tend to more the rheostat arm 118 in one direction. The rheostat 53 is in the field winding 54: of motor 52 and the direction of movement of arm 11R caused by the aforesaid cycles of. operati-rin is in the direction to increase the re; at-nce in this field winding to speed up motor 52 and to increase the rate of delivery of material to conveyer belt 11.

F XE ellect of the material passing over conreycr helt 11 is to alternately close circuits hetween wires 13'1132 and 131--133 at a rate proportional to the rate the material passes over this conveyer. These wires are connected in the way described with solenoids 136-437 and with solenoid windings 13: 14-6, These operate and control the circuit through hrake solenoid 172, motor H55. drum winding 169 and contacts 152, 153 in a manner similar to that already described. The parts actuated by motor 165 hourvcr have a tendency to more rheostat arm 118 in the opposite direction to slow down motor 52.

it may be seen that the periocs at which contacts 9292 and iwontacts 152-153 are opened by their respective weights and 15d. depend upon the length of travel of these weights and that this may be varied at will by setting the positions of these automatic circuit breakers by means of the adjusting screws 98 and 153. By this means the proportion of material passing over conreyer belt 11 to that passing over conveyor helt it) may be maintained automatically, and the proportion varied to any desired extent by the screws 98 and 158.

The number of conveyers thus automatically controlled is not limited. For example, in Fig. 1. a third con vcyer belt 12 is shown with a resistance (3 in the field of its feeder motor 62. This conreyer has a meter 180 with connected devices arranged to intermittently actuate a motor 181 to reduce the amount of the resistance 63 in field 64, and to slow down motor 62 while the wires 3%, 33 and ZH are extended from meter 29 to actuate devices which control motor 182 to increase the amount of the resistance 63 in lield 5st to increase the speed of motor 62. Thus the amount of material fed to conveyer 12 is dependent upon the amount of material which passes over conveycr 10 although it is entirely independent of the amount of material which passes over the conveyer 11.

The modification illustrated in Fig. 3 is one adapted for use when meters which intermittently close only one circuit, that between wires 190 and 191 are used. The wire 19f) passes to solenoid Winding 192 from which it is connected with a stationary con tact 93 and the solenoid winding 80, the other end of which is connected to a stationary Contact 194. The wire 191 is connected with the lower end of solenoid 80 and. to a stationary contact 194. The solenoids 192 and 80 are therefore energized simul tancously. The movable contact 82, as before. closes a maintaining circuit through the winding 81. The solenoid 192 at the same time, raises a movable contact 195 across contacts 193-194 which short circuits winding 80 and prevents a repetition of the cycle of operations performed by the motor 105 by an accidental connection of wires 1% and 191 before the cycle of operations has been completed.

Arrangements of preferred form and con struction have been illustrated and described for the purpose of showin how this invention may he used. but the inventive thought upon which this application is based is lroadcr than these illustrative embodiments thereof, and I therefor intend no limitations other than those imposed by the appended claims.

hat I claim is:

1. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyers, automatic means for feeding material onto said other conveyer or conveyers at variable rates, a feeder control for each automatic feeder comprising a pair of driven gears and an intermediate gear, connections between each intermediate gear and its feeder, means controlled by the master conveyer for rotating one of each pair of driven gears in one direction, and means controlled by each other conveyor for retating the other driven gear of its respective feeder control, in the opposite direction.

2. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, automatic means for feeding ma terial onto said other conveyor or conveyors at variable rates, a feeder control for each automatic feeder comprising a pair of driven gears and an intermediate gear, con nections between each intermediate gear and its feeder, means controlled by the master conveyor for rotating one of each pair of driven gears in one direction, means controlled by each other conveyor for rotating the other driven gear of its respective feeder control, in the opposite direction, and adjustable means for limiting the amount of rotation of the driven gears.

23. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, a weighing device for each conveyer, automatic means for feeding material onto said other conveyor or conveyors at variable rates. a feeder control for each automatic feeder comprising a pair of driven gears and an intermediate gear, connections between each intermediate gear and its feeder, means controlled by the weighing device for the master conveyor for rotating one of each pair of driven gears in one direction, and means controlled by the weighing device for each other conveyor for rotating the driven gear of its respective feeder control, in the opposite direction.

it. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, a weighing device for each conveyer, automatic means for feeding material onto said other conveyor or cmlveyers at variable rates, a feeder control for each automatic feeder comprising a pair of driven gears and an intermediate gear. connections between each intermediate gear and its feeder, means controlled by the weighing device for the master conveyor for rotating one of each pair of driven gears in one direction, means controlled by the weighing device for each other conveyor for rotating the driven gear of its respective feeder control, in the opposite direction, and an independent adjustable device for each driven gear for limiting the amount of its rotation.

5. A master conveyor. one or more other conveyors, a weighing device for each conveyor, a feeder for the master conveyor, manual means for adjusting the rate of actuating of said feeder, means for feeding material onto said other conveyor or conveyors at variable rates, an automatic feeder control for each variable feeder comprising a pair of driven gears and an intermediate gear. connections between each intermediate gear and its feeder, means controlled by the weighing device for the master conveyor for rotating one of each pair of driven gears in one direction, and means controlled by the weighing device for each other conveyor for rotating the driven gear of its respective feeder control, in the opposite direction.

6. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, means associated with each conveyor for producing intermittent impulses at rates proportional to the weight of material passing over the respective conveyors in a predetermined time; an automatic feeder for each other conveyor or conveyors, a movable member for each feeder arranged to vary the rate of its actuation, means actuated by each impulse produced by the master conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to said member or members in one direction, and means actuated by each impulse of another of the conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to its member in the opposite direction.

7. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, means associated with each conveyor for producing intermittent impulses at rates proportional to the weight of material passing over the respective conveyors in a predetermined time: an automatic feeder for each other conveyor or conveyors, a movable member for each feeder arranged to vary the rate of its actuation, means actuated. by each impulse produced by the master conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to said member or mem bers in one direction, an automatic stop for arresting said movement, and means actuated by each impulse of another of the conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to its member in the opposite direction and an automatic stop for arresting said movement.

8. A. master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, means associated with each conveyer for producing intermittent impulses at rates proportional to the weight of material passing over the respective conveyors in a predetermined time: an automatic feeder for each other conveyor or conveyors, a movable member for each feeder arranged to vary the rate of its actuation, means actuated by each impulse produced by the master conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to said member or members in one direction, an automatic stop for arresting said movement, means actuated by each impulse of another of the conveyor means for imparting a continuous movement to its member in the opposite direction, an automatic stop for arresting said movement, and means for adjusting said antomatic stops.

9. A master conveyor, one or more other conveyors, means associated with each conveyor for reducing intermittent impulses at rates proportional to the Weight of material passing over the respective conveyors in a predetermined time: an automatic feeder for each other conveyor or conveyors, a movable member for each feeder arranged to vary the rate of its actuation, means actuated by each impulse produced by the master conveyer means for imparting a continuous movement of said member or members in one direction, means actuated by each impulse of another of the conveyer means for imparting a continuous movement to its member in the opposite direction, and differential gearing interposed between said movement imparting means.

10. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyers, means associated with each conveyer for producing intermittent impulses at rates proportional to the weight of material passing over the respective conveyors in a predetermined time; an automatic feeder for each other conveyer or conveyers, a movable member for each feeder arranged to vary the rate of its actuation, means actuated by each impulse produced by the master conveyer means for imparting a con tinuous movement to said member or members in one direction, an automatic stop for arrestin said movement, means actuated by each impulse of another of the conveyer means for imparting a continuous movement to its member in the opposite direction, an automatic stop for arresting said movement, means for adjusting said automatic stops, and differential gearing interposed between said movement imparting means.

11. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyers, an automatic feeder for each other conveyer, and a feeder control means differentially dependent upon the amount of material carried by the master conveyer and by the conveyer with which said feeder is associated, said control means comprising a pair of continuous movement actuators.

12. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyers, an automatic feeder for each other conveyer, a feeder control means differentially dependent upon the amount of material carried by the master conveyer and by the conveyor with which said feeder is associated, said control means comprising a pair of continuous movement actuators, and a stop for arresting the movement of the actuators.

13. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyors, a n automatic feeder for each other conveyer, a feeder control means differentially dependent upon the amount of material carried by the nuister conveyer and by the conveyor with which said feeder is associated, said control means comprising a pair of continuous movement actuators, and an adjustable stop for arresting the movement of the actuators.

14. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyors, an automatic feeder for each other conveyer, and a feeder control means differentially dependent upon the amount of material carried by the master conveyer and by the conveyor with which said feeder is associated, said control means comprising a pair of rotary motors and a differential gear mechanism.

15. A master conveyer, one or more other conveyors, an automatic feeder for each other conveyer, a feeder control means differentially dependent upon the amount of material carried by the master conveyor and by the conveyor with which said feeder is associated, said control means comprising a pair of rotary motors and a differential gear mechanism, and a stop for arresting the movement of the motors.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 10th day of December, 1918.

EDWIN H. MESSITER.

Attest Gno. W. BROWN. 

